Tonight, more so than usual, it was impossible to find a parking space anywhere near the pool. In fact, we parked so close to the house we might as well have walked there from the beginnning. There I am, carrying a 13 kilo (28.5 pound) toddler and running to the pool because we are running late, cursing under my breath and hurting my back; when a random man came out of a random apartment building carrying an old, minorly broken but usable stroller.
He asked me if I could use a stroller right now, and at first I thought he was joking. The man insisted that he was going to throw it out in any case, and it might as well get one last ride before its retirement.
G-d can truly be found in the small events.
After our lesson, I became aware as I stood naked and shivering in the badly heated changing room, that another little girl and her mother were having a muted and yet prolonged conversation...about my butt. That's right, apparently this little girl was marveling at the adult female human body, and needed to satisfy her curiosity with this age-appropriate yet awkward conversation.
I have certainly found myself in situations where Raphaela points at random people on the street and says, "Who's that?", and other countless more sensitive yet age-appropriate scenarios. I didn't want the mother of this little girl to be embarrased; I turned around, looked at this child and said (in Hebrew), "That's right, Mommies have big tushies and little girls have little tushies." The mother smiled at me, and then her daughter started playing with her breasts, which sparked an entirely separate conversation about Mommy body parts and nursing.
We all parted as friends, and silently I thanked Raphaela for allowing me to become a woman who feels proud of her body, a human being who finally does not take herself so seriously that she cannot laugh at herself.
2 comments:
Very sweet. I remember when my oldest was 3 and she marveled at how big my mom's tush was! :) Everything's really big when you're 3.
That's delightful.
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